1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a carriage for a hand-operated knitting machine, particularly for use with a thick yarn, and more particularly to a knitting carriage of the type wherein a pair of main cams are mounted at left and right symmetrical positions on a carriage base plate and a forward rest needle butt path is located forwardly of the main cams, whereby a tuck work can be knit with the carriage.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, in knitting a tuck work with a thick knitting yarn such as a medium thick yarn or a very thick yarn on a hand-operated knitting machine for a thick yarn in which knitting needles are mounted in a 6 to 10 pitch (adjacent knitting needles are spaced by a distance of 6 to 10 mm) in a row, using a carriage having such a general construction as described above, a serious trouble has been often encountered: in particular, referring to FIG. 5 of the accompanying drawings, since loops 2, that is, tuck loops 2, extend in overlapping relationship across and over a knitting needle 1 introduced in a forward rest needle butt path and thus present a swelled condition as shown in FIG. 5, particularly a needle loop or loop 4 which are indirectly suspended from a knitting needle 3 adjacent the knitting needle 1 rise high at a position forwardly of a hook 5 of the knitting needle 3 while needle loops suspended from other knitting needles 3 may also rise but less high forwardly of the respective knitting needles 3. As a result, as the knitting needles are advanced by an auxiliary cam and a main cam, the hooks 5 of the knitting needles 3 stick into such loops 4 and accordingly they will come to carry the loops 4 doubly thereon.
In order to prevent such a trouble, a number of weights are often hung on a knit fabric to prevent rising of loops of the fabric. Since in such a case a knit fabric is pulled down strongly by weights, loops of the fabric are inclined to become tight, resulting in failure of a bulky appearance peculiar to a heavy yarn knit fabric.
Another arrangement for preventing rising of loops of a fabric is disclosed in Japanese utility model publication No. 38-14473 which employs a fabric pressing bar. In this arrangement, a fabric pressing bar is disposed such that, when a carriage is traversed on a needle bed, it is engaged with stems of knitting needles introduced in a forward rest needle butt path, and hence it is disadvantageous in that loops suspended from knitting needles adjacent the knitting needles cannot be pushed down at least below the stems of the knitting needles and hence the hooks of the knitting needles may stick into the loops so that the knitting needles may come to carry the loops doubly. Therefore, only 4, 3 and 2 successive tuck loops in a wale are normally possible in knitting a tuck work with a thick, very thick and extra thick yarn, respectively.